88
How Cars Turned Into Giant Killers
(slate.com)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2023
88 points (96.8% liked)
Fuck Cars
9771 readers
3 users here now
This community exists as a sister community/copycat community to the r/fuckcars subreddit.
This community exists for the following reasons:
- to raise awareness around the dangers, inefficiencies and injustice that can come from car dependence.
- to allow a place to discuss and promote more healthy transport methods and ways of living.
You can find the Matrix chat room for this community here.
Rules
-
Be nice to each other. Being aggressive or inflammatory towards other users will get you banned. Name calling or obvious trolling falls under that. Hate cars, hate the system, but not people. While some drivers definitely deserve some hate, most of them didn't choose car-centric life out of free will.
-
No bigotry or hate. Racism, transphobia, misogyny, ableism, homophobia, chauvinism, fat-shaming, body-shaming, stigmatization of people experiencing homeless or substance users, etc. are not tolerated. Don't use slurs. You can laugh at someone's fragile masculinity without associating it with their body. The correlation between car-culture and body weight is not an excuse for fat-shaming.
-
Stay on-topic. Submissions should be on-topic to the externalities of car culture in urban development and communities globally. Posting about alternatives to cars and car culture is fine. Don't post literal car fucking.
-
No traffic violence. Do not post depictions of traffic violence. NSFW or NSFL posts are not allowed. Gawking at crashes is not allowed. Be respectful to people who are a victim of traffic violence or otherwise traumatized by it. News articles about crashes and statistics about traffic violence are allowed. Glorifying traffic violence will get you banned.
-
No reposts. Before sharing, check if your post isn't a repost. Reposts that add something new are fine. Reposts that are sharing content from somewhere else are fine too.
-
No misinformation. Masks and vaccines save lives during a pandemic, climate change is real and anthropogenic - and denial of these and other established facts will get you banned. False or highly speculative titles will get your post deleted.
-
No harassment. Posts that (may) cause harassment, dogpiling or brigading, intentionally or not, will be removed. Please do not post screenshots containing uncensored usernames. Actual harassment, dogpiling or brigading is a bannable offence.
Please report posts and comments that violate our rules.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
I have a truck that I use to move large, dirty, or awkward things for a small farm... but to commute to work I ride a motorcycle. The bike gets better gas mileage, looks cooler, is easier to park, and is considerably cheaper than a new truck.
I work with a lot of contractors, and they all still love their big trucks, having at least some utility argument that they are useful for work. But several of them have switched to smaller vans like the Ford Transit, Dodge Ram ProMaster, Nissan NV200, etc., and say they aren't as cool but they're so much easier to drive and park at job sites. And they lock up all your stuff, so you don't have the same theft from work sites, a serious problem where I live. They have racks on the roof to carry ladders, which you had to put on top of the trucks anyway because most trucks can't even fit a step ladder in the bed. These guys will still keep a few trucks in their fleet for pulling large equipment, but most of the time I meet them on a site, they're driving the vans.
Vans are superior to trucks for working in nearly every way. More storeage space for tools and materials. Room to build custom shelving/storage. Everything stays dry in the back of a van. Larger vans can even fit a workbench. Vans are more fuel effecient, which should be a no brainer from a business perspective.
The major downside to most vans is if you need to transport more than 2 workers per van.
Van configurations can accommodate 4+ people, just like trucks, if you need it. Maybe not in the smaller vans as easily, if you have a lot of equipment, but the larger vans (Transit, ProMaster, etc.) can fit plenty. Heck, people convert them to live out of as campers. They just don't feed the same masculinity crisis that trucks do.
I have an F150, but believe me, I tried to go another way. A van wasn't ideal, because I need something that has an open cargo area, unless the idea of carrying a van full of manure, dirt, or compost seems like a good idea.
What I wanted to get was one of the little kei trucks, espeically a Suzuki Carry, but at the time I couldn't find one in running condition for less than $25k, and I wasn't going to pay that, especially when I found a base model F150 with 81,000 miles for $12k. The market may have changed in the past two years, but I have the truck now and it would be silly to waste the time and energy to sell it and find a kei truck.
Yeah, stuff like landscaping is a use case that really does favor open-bed trucks. My neighbor runs a landscaping business and uses a couple Isuzu N series trucks for that purpose. I think one is crew-cab. They're obviously a bit bigger than the Suzuki Carry, but used ones are close to that price range.
The Isuzu N-trucks are much larger than my F150.
Right, that just makes sense to me anyway. Like, wouldn’t you want better gas mileage for your day-to-day vehicle I get not everyone can afford multiple vehicles but I’d think if you can afford a tank you could probably?
Neither the truck or the bike were very expensive... both of them together were about half the price of a base model new truck.